Sean Clough of Smithfield holds a sign at the rally, as Renee Doran of Providence holds her baby, Mark Jose.

The Providence Journal / Ruben W. Perez

PROVIDENCE — Governor Carcieri and his wife yesterday joined dozens of families and religious figures in the State House rotunda in a rally decrying abortion.

They prayed, they called for change and they pleaded with Rhode Islanders to consider what they say is a fundamental right: human life.

“The most important thing that we as a nation can protect is life,” the governor told the crowd.

The Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee held the rally in part to denounce last week’s 35-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.

Sue Carcieri, the governor’s wife, thanked the crowd for coming out in support of a cause she has long committed herself to — and one she said she and the governor will continue to champion long after he leaves the State House.

With lawmakers trickling in before the day’s legislative sessions, abortion opponents waved signs with bold slogans: “Stop Abortion Now” and “Thank you President Bush.” They quoted Scripture and shared religious cards with images of Jesus Christ. Young children rested at their mothers’ sides. A group of teenage boys from Warwick’s Bishop Hendricken High School made the trip because they said they believe in the anti-abortion message.

Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said the governor was not at the rally to push specific legislation, rather to display his continued support for the anti-abortion movement.

Like her husband, Sue Carcieri did not directly call for legislative change, but said she wants to spread her passion and her conviction for the cause. She spoke of her infant granddaughter, a child whose life she said she has valued “since the moment she was conceived,” not the moment she was born.

Asked afterward how she’d respond to those who support abortion, Sue Carcieri called the concept of life as fundamental a right as liberty and pursuit of happiness.

“It is a basic right we have in our Constitution. It’s really basic,” she said. “It underlies all the other things this country has always supported.”

This is not the first time the governor’s wife has participated in an anti-abortion rally. Two years ago, she helped lead a Catholic group’s recitation of the rosary to pray for an end to legal abortion.

cneedham@projo.com